Alison Cotton – “I Am!”

There’s always a sense of weight with the works of Alison Cotton. From concept records based on the lives of sisters smuggling possessions out of Nazi-occupied Germany to chamber folk forms that evoke John Cale and Nico’s Marble Index, Cotton is a master of atmosphere and an architect of dark corners. For her latest she begins with an interpretation of John Clare’s poem ‘I Am!’, weaving the text into a cavernous drone-folk tapestry. “I felt there was something very song-like about the structure,” she notes. “There was such a haunting, melodic, almost hymn-like feel that it made me want to set it to music one day. The song begins with a minimal drone accompaniment to accentuate the feeling of isolation in the words and crescendos into staccato and harmonic viola, drums and the cawing of crows.” The song sits among nine new works on her upcoming album, The Gods Laugh, out June 19th from Glitterbeat Records.

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